A Travesty of “Open Government”
The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors convened at noon in a specially scheduled meeting to discuss one of the most contentious and potentially momentous issues it has ever been called upon to address — the dismantling of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and racial preferences.
The meeting will not be live-streamed.
Not that it would make much difference. The touchiest topic will be addressed in closed session.
Transparency is an absolute joke at UVA, a $5 billion-a-year public agency subject to Virginia’s public meeting laws, which were designed in a fit of idealism of some past era lost in the mists of time to make government open to the public but which have been eroded or ignored ever since.
Consider the context: DEI is one of the most emotional and consequential debates occurring in the country today. In March the Board of Visitors voted under pressure from the Trump administration and acclaim of Governor Glenn Youngkin to dismantle DEI and end racial preferences. It gave President Jim Ryan 30 days to report back on his progress. He did, but he declined to make the report available to the public. From what I hear, it was brief, superficial, and unsatisfactory, but no one leaked it, so it’s impossible for the public to evaluate it.
Since then, President Jim Ryan joined 300 other presidents of higher-ed institutions in signing a letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities decrying the “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” an implied criticism of the Trump administration’s threat to yank federal research dollars from institutions that fail to comply with executive orders to eliminate DEI. He was the only president of a public Virginia university to do so.
Over the weekend, The Jefferson Council took out a full-page ad in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, headlined, “DEI won’t be dead, or even materially altered, until there is a change of leadership at the University.”
Then yesterday the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice fired back, ordering UVA to cough up a trove of documents regarding its DEI deliberations.
“The Department of Justice expects your complete candor and prompt response to this request,” stated the letter addressed to President Jim Ryan, Rector Robert Hardie and University Counsel Cliff Iler. “Please ensure that this letter is immediately shared with each of the members of the University’s Board of Visitors.”
This matter could be a firestorm. The BoV deliberations about DEI are of the greatest possible interest to the public. If anything should be open to the public, these discussions should be.
But the board meeting will not be livestreamed? Why not? “The standing practice of the Board,” says UVA spokesman Brian Coy, “is to stream quarterly meetings but not special meetings.”
Not that it would make much difference. The key issues will be addressed in closed session. Here’s the reason given in the board agenda:
Consultation with legal counsel and legal advice regarding compliance by the University with civil rights laws and regulations and presidential executive orders, and potential and actual litigation and investigations involving governmental agencies…
Bottom line: Any time the University Counsel has anything substantive to say, if it’s classified as a “legal matter” not a public policy issue of profound public importance, and discussed behind closed doors.
What a travesty.
James A. Bacon serves on the executive committee of The Jefferson Council. The opinions expressed here are his alone.
